The allocation, assignment and enforcement of restricted parking spaces in public and private parking lots is a significant challenge to vehicle operators as well as lot owners. People often park their vehicles in places that are restricted to limited or protected use, and there are often no police or other authorities around to enforce the parking rules. For example, a car may park in a handicapped zone even though it has no authorization to do so. An aggravating factor is that there may be too many or too few restricted (i.e. handicapped, short-term, etc.) parking spaces to adequately service the need at any particular point in time. Further, a set of parking spaces maybe reserved by painted lines or signs permanently when they are only needed during specific times or events. This causes aggravation for the public, especially if they drive by and see a large number of open, reserved spaces when they cannot find other places to park. For example, if too many reserved spaces around a building are empty and the only regular open parking spaces are located at a significant distance away, people are more prone to ignore posted signs and warnings and violate the posted parking restrictions by occupying restricted parking spaces. Conversely, if an inadequate number of spaces are allocated, people who truly require close proximity to the building will not be able to find an appropriate parking space. Thus, needs may vary according to time and events, but painted lines and posted signs are inflexible.
Thus, there is a need for an improved methodology and system for enabling a selective and/or automatic adjustment of the number of handicapped (or other) reserved parking spaces such that there are always a minimum number of reserved spaces available, but the number of reserved spaces will fluctuate according to immediate demand.